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Alright, I'm really pleased with the way this is turning out so far, which is the only reason I'm submitting it prematurely. This is the picture that I printed out and showed to my professor which started the whole commission thing.

Great blue heron, done entirely in photoshop, several reference pictures used for the bird, none used for the background (which is CLEARLY unfinished, don't say it looks halfassed.)

Again another beautiful piece. You really have amazing skill with drawing birds. I'm envious! May I ask what you plan to do to the background from here? The sky is amazingly well done also. How do you accomplish the look of the bird in photoshop? lots of layers? Do you smudge or just draw the 'lines' for hte feathers?

First off, thanks so much for commenting and faving! As for this getting "finished" weeeeelllll..... we'll just have to see how ambitious I get. I had really planned on doing more detail with the cattails. Right now they look like black blobs and I'm not really satisfied with them as silouhettes. Unfortunately, I have a short attention span and I hate drawing plants, so whether the cattails get more detail or not is questionable.

My "technique" in Photoshop is really to use as few layers as possible. The main body of both my gryphon and the heron were single layers. There's probably a much better or efficient way of doing things, but I tend to think that using only a few layers forces me to think of it more in terms of a painting. I generally just do lots of scribbling with a tablet and different colors and opacities. I try to smudge as little as possible, I tend to overkill and it always ends up too smooth for my taste. My general plan for feathers is base color -> outline the different feathers to get their direction down -> scribble scribble scribble. It's not really scientific.

Thanks again for showing so much interest in my drawings! I'm glad you like them!

Thank you!
For once I'm really pleased with how something is turning out in photoshop... still a bit left to go though. I really appreciate the encouragement from you and everyone else here on Deviant Art!